Lucky the Dog Bag

[monica_thompson]

My daughter and I made this for her friend for her birthday.  She has a much doted upon lab mix named Lucky, who is possibly the largest fattest dog ever.   When Emma wanted to make a present for Shea's birthday, and we decided to applique on a bag we picked up at Goodwill, Lucky was the first thing Emma came up with.  I decided that it's perfect, since it is very personal, but not in a soon to be dated kinda way.  In 6 months, she may not like unicorns anymore, but she'll always love Lucky.  Emma picked out the bag, and all the fabrics, buttons and patterns (online clip-art dog picture)  Her favorite part was the sparkly purple felt we used for the dog!

The Front--Emma did all of the stitching on the letters herself, and I did the dog.  This was only her 2nd time working with felt, so I am very very proud of her.

The Big dog...I love how he turned out.  I stitched "Lucky" on the tag, and the eyes and nose are buttons.


The lining and the pocket, with the card that Emma made her inside, holding the clip on earrings Em' picked up at Goodwill as well.


On the inside, I zig-zaged a pocket with her name freestyle on my machine..we were running so late at this point for the party, but I like how it turned out anyway.


A close up of the handles detail...one of them had a tear at the top, so we covered both handles with felt and wrapped them with emboidery floss...I think this is one of my favorite parts of the bag.

[autommatic]

what a wonderful idea for a gift! it turned out great, too... i love what you did with the handles, it adds a nice touch!

[Tanzie]

that is the sweetest thing i have ever seen,so much fun to make together and the idea of it is just too much,im almost teary eyed!im sure anyone would love to get such a personal and thoughtful gift!

[April is]

cutest bag i've seen in quite a while- i know i would love this even now, let alone if i was a younger girl. the colors are beautiful, the stiching perfect, but its the little waggy tail is what really does it for me. great job- i'm sure your daughters friend will squeee, lol

[monica_thompson]

thanks you guys!
I was really happy with how it came out, and the birthday girl loved it (and I suspect her mother was a bit jealous)

I would have loved to have kept it for myself!

[ladybuggems]

Wow, how cute!  I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to do projects like that together.  What a great idea. 

[fizzgiggly]

That's great!  I love the details - sparkly felt, tail wagging, handles - what an awesome gift!

[AlternaWidget]

What a fun and meaningful gift! And you're a super mom to let your child get so much joy from giving. This rocks!

[purplexime]

Beautiful and very creative.  I love the way the dog came out.  Can you explain a bit more how you did it?
Thanks for sharing!

[monica_thompson]

Sure! 
We picked up the bag at goodwill for 99 cents(there is NO cent symbol on my computer!  what a travesty!!)  It was a Matrix (shampoo company) bag with a nylon lining.  We left the bag as was.
The dog shapes we found online....we google searched black dog clip art and eventually found this one.  I sized the whole dog to the size we wanted, and for the head, I just cropped it and blew it up huge on paint until it was the size we wanted.    I printed off both of them, pinned them to the felt, and pin pricked the details, and used regular chalk to mark it off.  Meaning, I made holes with a pin and rubbed chalk dust into them so that I could see the pattern on the felt.  For the outline of the pattern I used the chalk to make an edge rubbing (rubbed the chalk from the paper over onto the felt leaving a chalky sunburst to cut away)
So once I did that, I embroidered/ attached the details (ears eyes collar etc) before I attached them to the bag. Then I just did a running stitch to attach them.  Which was hard through the tight weave of the bag and lining. 
While I was working on this, Emma was stitching the "Lucky" layers together.  She did a double row of stitching on each letter.  When it came time to attach it to the bag, I didn't want to muddy up her stitching, so I attached that with glue. (plus my fingers were so tired!)
The little details were fun.  I learned how to do a french knot for the eyes on the little dog, and the nose as well, the big dog got double button eyes and a big black button nose, On the little dog's collar, the tag (tiny red button) got an "L" stitched on to it, and the big dog I stitched on the whole name "Lucky"
The colors were fun and easy...I had them all in a stash of felt I got for nothing.  The lining fabric was on the dollar shelf at Walmart....easy and cheap.

If I think of any more steps, I'll post them, and if you have any specific questions, ask!